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Thursday, August 10, 2017

A nude, all-male Hamlet in the open air.

Walking around naked in public might seem like an insane thing to do, even if you’re the Prince of Denmark.

But when your world is run by liars who tell you when to smile and what to wear, maybe “insane” is the only honest thing to be.

After
making headlines with last summer’s celebration of the nude female
form, Torn Out Theater will turn its eye to the fraught, complex world
of male body image. Our bold new production of Hamlet will ask tough
questions about how the male body is perceived in America today.

The
latest, and perhaps most titillating example: what’s being billed as a
“nude, all-male, body-positive” outdoor production of the play being put
on in Manhattan’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, courtesy
of Torn Out Theater, the same people who made headlines for last
summer’s nude, all-female production of The Tempest.

Why Hamlet? “I have been asking myself that question for a month,” director Pitr Strait said in an interview. “We wanted to follow up The Tempest with something that addressed body image and body positivity for men. The first time Hamlet
came up as a possibility I said, ‘No, no, it’s too big. It’s the most
famous play in the English language. Let’s not.’ But then we started
thinking let’s not look for a specific play but for what kind of story
we want to tell, and is there a play out there that’s already telling
that story. We wanted to tell a story about being yourself even when
everyone in the world is telling you not to. And once we realized that,
like it or not, Hamlet tells that story.”

Actor Jake Austin Robertson, who portrays Hamlet, says he isn’t nervous about having to strip down.

As for the nudity, there is some precedent extending
back a decade ago to the Washington Shakespeare Company’s 2007
production of an all-nude Macbeth.

So why a nude Hamlet — and why now?“After The Tempest,
there was this huge internet reaction and so much of it was from
people, mostly men but not exclusively, talking about how it would be
impossible to do this with men, how nobody wants to see naked men on
stage, it’s disgusting, it’s perverse, it’s obscene, they said. To us,
the right to be at one with your body and unashamed of your body is one
that belongs to everyone. Everyone should get that chance. So faced with
so much noise saying you can’t tell a story with naked men, we just
said, ‘Watch us.’”

The result, a cast of 13 actors, all of whom will
appear in varying states of undress. But why all-male? “I think body
positivity is something that affects people of all genders, but
certainly it is a different story and a different set of struggles for
people of varying gender,” Strait explained. “Male body image is
complicated and tangled. We explored the female body in all its
complexities with The Tempest and now we wanted to isolate the focus to be about men and men’s bodies.”

Actor Marcus Stewart portrays Ophelia in the production.

Any nerves from cast members about going full monty on
opening this Thursday — the first time they will have done it outside,
in light of New York law only allowing nudity in public if it’s part of a
performance, hence rehearsals being held indoors? “If I’m honest,
that’s on the lower end of what I’m nervous about,” the show’s leading
actor Jake Austin Robertson, said in an interview. “Taking off my
clothes is a lot easier than memorizing the longest character in
Shakespearean text. The nudity is just another checked box on this
litany of things that I need to be prepared for opening night.”

Can
we expect another all-nude production next summer?“Certainly,” Strait
said, promising it will feature more than one gender.

You
can catch the production during one of its six performances, Aug. 10
through 13 in the Music Pagoda in Prospect Park and Sept. 7 and 8 at
King Jagiello Statue in Central Park.The production offers free
admission, with no advanced reservations. Seating is available on a
first-come-first-served basis.

Members of Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society put on a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” - and the actors were all female and all nude. The
show, that took place in a secluded spot in Central Park on May 19 and
20, was protected by a New York City law that allows you to be fully
nude - as long as it is done in the name of art.

VIDEO - Monday, May 23, 2016

Nudity makes sense in “The Tempest,” a story of 12-year exiles on a
Caribbean Island who are always naked and the more “civilized”
characters who wash ashore the island after a storm capsizes their ship.
The clothed newcomers begin in costume but later shed their “skins” as
they become more involved with the locals and their way of life.

“You have to do naked for something other than shock value,” said
Kara Lynn who played Ferdinand in the play. “In the show nudity is about
feeling free enough to shed your old world values.”Watch our video for a peek at the show and interview with the actors and director.